Own and operate production PostgreSQL infrastructure: architecture, replication, HA, performance tuning, backup/disaster recovery, ETL/data pipelines, data services, monitoring, and on-call support for a regulated derivatives exchange.
Senior Postgres Database Reliability Engineer
Tysons Corner, VA (DC Metro Area) - will consider remote hiring from select states
Tysons Corner, VA (DC Metro Area) - will consider remote hiring from select states
Nodal Exchange is a derivatives exchange providing price, credit and liquidity risk management to participants in the North American commodity markets. Nodal Exchange is a leader in innovation, having introduced the largest sets of environmental and electric power futures and options contracts in the world. All transactions on Nodal Exchange (power, environmental and natural gas) are cleared through its wholly owned clearing house, Nodal Clear, using its award-winning portfolio margining methodology. Nodal Clear also clears a broad set of crypto futures contracts for Coinbase Derivatives Exchange. As leaders in innovation, Nodal Exchange and Nodal Clear have built in-house most of the trading and clearing platforms that fuel our business. Nodal Exchange is part of the EEX Group which is in turn part of the Deutsche Börse Group.
We are now looking for talented, innovative individuals to join our team based in the Tysons Corner, VA (DC Metro area).
The Opportunity
We are now looking for talented, innovative individuals to join our team based in the Tysons Corner, VA (DC Metro area).
The Opportunity
Every trade on one of North America’s largest power futures exchanges runs through PostgreSQL. Every settlement, every margin calculation, every risk assessment. This isn’t a database that supports the business—it is the business.
We’re hiring a Database Reliability Engineer who can own our data layer end to end. Not someone who monitors dashboards and runs backups—someone who understands WAL internals, thinks in replication topologies, and has opinions about how data infrastructure should evolve. Someone who sees what we have today and already has ideas about where it needs to go.
You’ll work inside a small, high-impact IT organization at a CFTC-regulated commodities exchange and clearing house. The systems you build and operate directly underpin billions of dollars in traded contracts. There is no abstraction layer between you and the work that matters.
Key Responsibilities
What You’ll Own
- Production PostgreSQL infrastructure across the full lifecycle: architecture, deployment, replication, monitoring, performance tuning, backup/recovery, and capacity planning
- Streaming replication and high-availability configurations that meet the uptime expectations of a regulated financial exchange
- Query and system-level performance analysis—diagnosing slow queries, optimizing execution plans, tuning shared_buffers, work_mem, and autovacuum, not just reading pg_stat output but knowing what to do about it
- Backup and disaster recovery strategy using tools like Barman, including point-in-time recovery testing and validation
- Data architecture evolution: modernizing data warehouse and reporting infrastructure, building ETL pipelines, and designing data flows that scale with the business
- Data services across the organization: test data management, data obfuscation, data modeling, and supporting data needs for development, QA, and business teams
- Operational support including on-call rotation for after-hours production database emergencies
What We Expect
We’re not looking for someone who needs to be told what to do. We need someone who assesses the landscape, identifies what’s broken or missing, proposes solutions, and drives them to completion. The right person hits the ground fast and builds trust through results.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
Required
- 5+ years hands-on PostgreSQL administration in production environments—not just dev/test, not just managed RDS
- Deep understanding of PostgreSQL internals: WAL mechanics, MVCC, vacuum processing, the query planner and optimizer, connection handling, and lock management
- Proven experience with physical and logical replication: setup, monitoring, failover, and troubleshooting split-brain scenarios
- Strong SQL performance tuning skills: reading EXPLAIN ANALYZE output, identifying indexing strategies, understanding join algorithms, and resolving locking contention
- Solid Linux systems administration (we run Ubuntu)—comfortable with systemd, filesystem performance, memory management, and networking fundamentals
- Experience with backup/recovery tools (Barman, pgBackRest, or equivalent) and tested disaster recovery procedures
- Experience building and maintaining ETL pipelines and data transformation processes
- Ability to work autonomously in a small team where you’re expected to own problems from identification through resolution
- Strong communication skills—you can explain a replication topology to a developer or a data availability timeline to a business stakeholder
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Mathematics, or a related field
Highly Valued
- Experience operating databases in regulated or financial services environments where uptime and audit trails are non-negotiable
- Hands-on AWS experience (EC2, RDS, S3, networking)—we run a hybrid on-prem/cloud infrastructure
- Infrastructure-as-code skills: Ansible and/or Terraform for automated, repeatable database deployments
- Python scripting for automation, tooling, and data pipeline development
- Experience with data obfuscation and masking techniques for non-production environments
- Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, pgWatch, or similar)
- Experience with cloud migration—moving database workloads from on-premises to AWS
- Contributions to PostgreSQL community, conference talks, or published writing on database engineering topics
Why This Role
- Your work directly supports a critical piece of U.S. energy market infrastructure—this isn’t a CRUD app backing a SaaS product
- Small team, large scope: you’ll have real ownership and architectural influence, not just ticket duty
- In-house platforms mean you work directly with the engineers who build the systems your databases serve
- Part of the Deutsche Börse Group—global exchange operator with institutional stability
- A leadership team that understands database engineering at a technical level and will invest in doing things right
Compensation
Salary Range: $170,000 - $210,000 per year base salary, when annualized
Pay Transparency Notice: The salary range is based on the D.C. metro area. The successful candidate’s starting salary will vary depending on permissible, non-discriminatory factors including but not limited to qualifications, skills, and experience. Nodal also offers a wide range of benefits and perks for full-time employees, which may include target bonuses.
Benefits
Nodal Employee Benefits and Perks: https://nodalexchange.pinpointhq.com
Nodal Exchange, LLC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, parental status, marital status, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military status, veteran status, physical or mental health, hairstyle, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law with respect to recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, or in any other terms and conditions of employment. Nodal Exchange is an E-verify participant.
About
Nodal Exchange is a derivatives exchange providing price, credit and liquidity risk management to participants in the North American commodities markets. Nodal Exchange is a leader in innovation, having introduced the largest set of electric power locational (nodal) futures and options contracts and the largest set of environmental futures and options contracts in the world. Nodal Exchange currently offers over 1,000 power contracts on hundreds of unique locations, providing the most effective basis risk management available to market participants.
Similar Jobs
Cloud • Security • Software • Cybersecurity • Automation
As Vice President, Legal Commercial, you will lead GitLab's global commercial legal function, advising on strategies, managing a legal team, and overseeing AI governance and contracting.
Cloud • Security • Software • Cybersecurity • Automation
Manage a team of Professional Services Engineers, deliver GitLab platform services, ensure customer satisfaction, and improve operational effectiveness. Foster team growth and technical delivery consistency across projects while collaborating with cross-functional partners.
Top Skills:
DevsecopsGitlabPlatform EngineeringSoftware Delivery
Cloud • Fintech • Food • Information Technology • Software • Hospitality
Lead the end-to-end POS Ordering product strategy, maintain reliability and performance at scale, drive ordering workflow innovation (including AI opportunities), partner with restaurant operators and cross-functional teams, and steward a high-traffic domain to ensure coherent, reliable, and differentiated ordering experiences.
What you need to know about the Colorado Tech Scene
With a business-friendly climate and research universities like CU Boulder and Colorado State, Colorado has made a name for itself as a startup ecosystem. The state boasts a skilled workforce and high quality of life thanks to its affordable housing, vibrant cultural scene and unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation. Colorado is also home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, helping cement its status as a hub for renewable energy innovation.
Key Facts About Colorado Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 260,000; 8.5% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Lockheed Martin, Century Link, Comcast, BAE Systems, Level 3
- Key Industries: Software, artificial intelligence, aerospace, e-commerce, fintech, healthtech
- Funding Landscape: $4.9 billion in VC funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Access Venture Partners, Ridgeline Ventures, Techstars, Blackhorn Ventures
- Research Centers and Universities: Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Denver, Colorado State University, Mesa Laboratory, Space Science Institute, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Gottlieb Institute
